Discerning another call

Hunter Farrell announces plans to leave World Mission in October

by Kathy Melvin | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE – After 30 years of service to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.,) Hunter Farrell has announced plans to leave his position as director of World Mission, effective October 14.

Farrell said he is in the process of discerning another call.

“Hunter has been a true gift to the PC(USA)’s witness throughout the world,” said Tony De La Rosa, the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s interim executive director. “An energetic and eloquent teaching elder, whose compassion for all of Christ’s faithful knows no bounds, Hunter leaves a lasting legacy in the Presbyterian Mission Agency and its World Mission ministry area. On behalf of a grateful denomination, we wish Hunter every blessing as he discerns to what service God is calling him next.”

De La Rosa said Farrell leaves World Mission in a position of strength. Last year Presbyterians gave more than $8.2 million for mission co-worker support, more than any year in recent history.

In his 30-year career, Farrell has served in Africa and South America as well as on the national staff of the denomination.

His work as a mission co-worker in Peru with the La Oroya community in the mountains above Lima has drawn international attention. La Oroya is on a list of the world’s most polluted communities due to lead smelting operations that have poisoned an entire generation of children.

From 1991 through 1997, Farrell worked in the General Assembly Council staff as coordinator of Presbyterian mission work in east and west Africa. Prior to that, he spent five years as a mission co-worker in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he taught Greek, New Testament exegesis and theology, and community development at the Faculty of Reformed Theology of the Kasai (Ndesha) in Kananga.

Farrell is fluent in four languages—English, Spanish, French, and Tshiluba (a language spoken in south central Congo).

Farrell received his BA in political science and Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin and his MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary in cross-cultural studies. In 2007 he received a PhD in cultural anthropology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

In a letter to colleagues, Farrell said, “I look forward with great anticipation and hope to all God has in store for Presbyterian World Mission and for me in the coming chapter.”

Transition plans will be announced as they are developed.